The Cost of Coal in Afghanistan (8 images)

During last decades, Afghanistan knew only one succession of conflicts: the Soviet occupation, the Afghan civil war, the rise and fall of the Taliban and today their return. These events ruined the economic development and eroded the vitality of the Afghan population. Coal, which is abundant in Afghanistan, can be an essential fuel used for the production of electricity, a basic need in Afghanistan.more »

During last decades, Afghanistan knew only one succession of conflicts: the Soviet occupation, the Afghan civil war, the rise and fall of the Taliban and today their return. These events ruined the economic development and eroded the vitality of the Afghan population. Coal, which is abundant in Afghanistan, can be an essential fuel used for the production of electricity, a basic need in Afghanistan.

When the Russian occupied the country in 1979, they sent their own engineers to run a large-scale production of the natural resource. I visited a particular mine difficult of access due to its geographical location, at 12 kilometres northeast off Pol-e-Khomli. During the Soviet occupation, more than 2000 miners extracted the black gold from the mine. The 150 miners employed today hardly cover the vast site through its hundreds of galleries dug formerly.

Often working at a depth of more than 360 meters deep, the miners extra the mineral with only shovels and pickaxes in hand, battery powered lamps on top of their heads, and old equipment once imported from Czechoslovakia. Intense heat, total darkness and the risk of explosion from methane gas make coalmining very difficult and dangerous.

The local demand for coal is far from profitable. Still lacking of major infrastructures such as reliable transportation and security, the Afghan government is unable to exploit the fossil fuel. With the present war against the Taliban wages on, the country seems to be losing grip on its most wanted resource.« less